UK MPs call for complete ban on plastic waste exports by 2028

08 Nov 2022 --- A cross-party UK committee is calling on the UK government to ban plastic waste exports entirely by the end of 2027. The call comes as part of a recent report by the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee on the country’s plastic waste failures and how the government and industry can tackle them.

The report makes a number of recommendations, including expediting the rollout of the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), creating a task force to investigate reuse and refill schemes, encouraging the use of the waste hierarchy concept, and spending money raised by EPR on building recycling infrastructure. 

Banning plastic waste exports by 2027 is one of the committee’s top priorities – something it says would end landfilling and incineration in countries like Turkey, where most of the UK’s waste ends up. 

“For far too long, the UK has been reliant on exporting its waste overseas and making it someone else’s problem. Plastic waste originating in our country is being illegally dumped and burned abroad. The UK must not be a part of this dirty trade, and that’s why we are calling for a total ban on waste plastic exports,” says MP Sir Robert Goodwill, chair of the committee.

Many industry players still assert exporting waste is a good option for market prices and the environment.“To do this, we need to reduce how much plastic we use and consume, invest in greater capacity to reprocess our own waste and support research into new technologies and materials. If the UK takes a lead in this, we have the potential to create hundreds of new jobs and build a multi-billion pound waste management industry.”

Exportation brings crime 
Recent estimates suggest that the UK exports around 60% of its packaging waste, with 38% going to Turkey. Despite legal stipulations restricting the types of waste and exportation destinations, the report says fraudsters use legal routes to conceal illegal shipments. This costs UK taxpayers an estimated £1 billion (US$1.15 billion) annually. 

Illegal waste trafficking also has severe impacts on human and environmental health. It is estimated that every 30 seconds, one person dies from diseases caused by mismanaged waste. It can also cause a variety of economic, social and health impacts, including land and water degradation, air pollution and food chain contamination. 

Matt Davies, head of public and industrial affairs at the British Plastics Federation (BPF), tells PackagingInsights that while BPF supports reducing reliance on exportation, the UK will need to continue doing so until its recycling infrastructure is improved. 

“The plastics industry supports measures to reduce the UK’s reliance on exporting plastic waste within a reasonable timeframe and with the right drivers in place,” he says. “Eliminating the export of plastic waste by 2027 as the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee has proposed will provide many challenges.”

Tackling mismanagement 
Given the alarming accounts of the damage, UK waste exports are causing, witnesses to the committee’s inquiry suggested two primary solutions: more robust enforcement of existing rules on the export of waste and banning or heavily restricting what can be exported and where it can be shipped.Waste shipment inspections are rare, giving ample opportunity for fraud.

Some industry players have long called for tougher restrictions on plastic waste. Last year, Viridor said that if five facilities similar to its Avonmouth plastics reprocessing and recycling plant were built, waste exports could be ended altogether. 

Viridor and the Environmental Services Association (ESA) estimated that only 5-10% of their shipments were inspected by the UK’s Environmental Agency this year. 

However, not all groups agree that all plastic waste exports should stop; even some environmental organizations are willing to accept it as long as the waste is processed correctly. 

Suez told the committee that the government “should not look to stop international trading of plastics because this would distort the market and raise prices for consumers.” At the same time, the ESA suggested that “exports of clean, single-grade plastics are part of a sustainable and circular plastics system and should not be undermined by export restrictions.” 

ESA says that exports “should be of plastics which have been processed to meet an end of waste standard.” The UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs also says that “where the UK cannot currently recycle materials economically, exports can help ensure those materials are recycled rather than landfilled or incinerated.”

By Louis Gore-Langton